Genocide: We’re so good at it
April 6th, 2008I was reading an obituary today for Dith Pran, the man who brought the “Killing Fields” of the Khmer Rouge to a global audience. Not only was it a moving story as portrayed in the film but it was a first hand account of the Cambodian genocide. It reminded me of some of the news stories recently about the men involved in carrying out orders from their leaders.
There was Kaing Guek Eav, better known as Duch, who processed thousands through S-21, a prison and torture centre. As he tells it he simply followed orders and after a time realised either he carried on or he and his family would be killed like all the others. This is a common theme: the chance of survival at any cost or certain death. Once you’ve killed a few another hundred or thousand is just numbers.
What about Joseph “Zig Zag” Marzah, a “lieutenant” of Charles Taylor, Liberian warlord. He recalls a culture of fear and severe repression within which there was no escape. Henchman who failed to carry through vicious killings were dispatched in similar fashion, on one occasion completely dismembering a former rebel leader and eating his liver. Cannibalism was encouraged as a weapon of fear.
Anyone who has seen “Blood Diamond” or even the new “Rambo” film will have seen theatrical glimpses of the way ordinary civilians are routinely tortured and killed in various parts of the world.
Never mind the 20th century as the bloodiest on record the 21st is shaping up to be pretty wet also.
Branton posted recently on the film “Beowulf” and how the myth demonstrates that we manifest what we truly believe about ourselves. The birthing of monsters is something we see all the time today. Did the US not support and fund the Khmer Rouge initially? Did they not fund Saddam initially as well as the Taliban?
So what can we learn from all this? Not that there is somehow a solution to genocide or that, as was said post-Holocaust, it will never happen again. It will happen again, somewhere and somehow. Sure we can make changes to the system that generates conflicts and doesn’t provide for all but really it’s ourselves that need to change. What we believe about ourselves is what comes out into the world. Will we continue to be like Hrothgar or will we be like Beowulf? Will we unite with the source or continue to separate ourselves and descend into a world of monsters?
The choice is ours.
Tags: amnesty, genocide, systems, terrorism, un declaration of human rights, violence, war
April 7th, 2008 at 5:37 am
As long as people continues to exhibit homophily, the tendancy to associate or bond with those like themselves, whether its race, culture, tribe, or religion and respond to groupthink or conformism, the willingness to obey authority figures despite having to do things that are contrary to their personal values, these types of things are going to happen again.
Have you hear of the Milgram experiment? Very interesting findings, which are relevant to this post.
April 7th, 2008 at 10:05 am
James you’re a walking encyclopedia. When are you going to do some work for the SI?
Yes the Milgram experiments certainly shone the light on this type of human behaviour as did the Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison one which you can view here
http://www.prisonexp.org
April 8th, 2008 at 5:35 am
Hi Raf,
Lol. My friends say I’m an enclopedia of useless information lol. I originally heard about the Milgram Experiment when I watched a British documentary called Exposed: City Life. Once episode was an investigation life in cities from a sociological perspective. It basically concluded that cities were an unnatural environment unfit for human inhabitation.
They conducted a variation of the Milgram experiment to discover whether a victims’ anonymity makes it more likely for them to have pain inflicted upon them. Really interesting doco.
http://www.mwolk.com/tv-shows/download-bbc-exposed-2005-documentary
SI? I’m really tired at the moment so I haven’t the foggiest what that stands for.
April 1st, 2009 at 3:40 am
[...] just year now since I wrote about the death of Dith Pran and Kaing Guek Eav, the commandant of S-21 who was finally put up for trial. Well now the time has [...]
August 30th, 2011 at 4:01 am
[...] Hamill in Cambodia back in 1978. I’ve written about this case a couple of times in the past here and here and I also saw Rob Hamill, Kerry’s brother, give a talk about this at TEDxChCh last [...]